Poor Tigers

The Problem

Tigers are being hunted to extinction, and not enough people really seem to care. The range of all tigers is now only 7% of what it used to be, and in the past decade the area known to be occupied by tigers has dropped 41%. They’ve completely disappeared from Western Asia, and now roam in isolated pockets on the continent, leaving their range fragmented. The largest population of tiger, the Bengal tiger, is suspected to have dropped 60% in the past decade leaving less than 2000 Bengal tigers in total, and some subspecies of tiger have already gone extinct. As I’ve said they are forecasted to be completely extinct in 12 years give or take, meaning that there is a possibility some of us will have children that don’t even know what a tiger is, unless they include them in a history book titled “What we did to ruin the Planet” or we all have children next year. But then again, who would write that book? It would be longer than the bible and a new edition would have to be released once every six months, because we’re just that bad, so you all better get busy…really busy.

Why are the tigers being killed?

My answer…because humans are horrible creatures. The real answer is a combination of over hunting caused by the unlawful buying and selling of animal goods that is causing all of the tigers to be killed. Poachers are hunting tigers to extinction to skin them for rugs, and sell them to the highest bidder reaching to up around sixty five thousand dollars! Another rather odd commodity is male tigers being killed for poachers to harvest their; brace yourself….penises. Yes, that’s right, some demented people over in China feel that they should consume tiger penises in some form or another. Soups, energy bars, smoothies, all sorts of things. They believe that it’s a natural aphrodisiac, the last thing one of the most populated countries in the world needs. So while they make love on their new tiger skin rugs, the tigers population is steadily declining.

Tigers are also being threatened by the original vice we humans took to cope to with sharing a planet with other living, breathing things, to destruction of the world’s rainforests. As the forests grow smaller the tigers and their prey have less space to roam, less room to live. This destroys both their safety of shelter, and their food source at once, leaving them completely helpless, not a good position to one of the world’s top predators.

So who is to blame?

That’s a wonderful question! A little bit of everyone to be honest…you, me, your mothers, fathers, and the like. That of course is a part of my not being a part of the solution philosophy but honestly anyone that buys and sells illegal animal products is to blame. It is also possible many of us live in places that are responsible for the obliteration of the world’s rainforests, the US being an especially active participant in that practice.

Top Culprits

I’m sure this will be a surprise to the majority of you but behind China, the US is a huge advocate (not as a country of course but select individuals) of the illegal wildlife trade as stated by Peter Knights.

“Right now in stores and homes all across the United States, people are doing things, which are causing these places to be destroyed, animals to be destroyed. I mean the United States is probably the second largest importer of wildlife after China and in many cases we have things like turtle eggs for example. We do have things like rhino horn occasionally, and tiger pelts often find their way into the homes of those that can afford it.”

So our country is far from innocent, with our rich risking to import the illegal pelts to furnish the floors in front of their fireplaces. Between the US, buying for glamour, and Chinese buying for the prospect of gaining increased vitality the poachers have enough demand to supply for years to come. The only problem is there are not enough tigers left to endure this slaughter and in this case a will does not equal a way.